Conventionally, a plurality of cameras were used to image a wide field of view. Each of the cameras was generally arranged to cover a desired field of view (for example, an omnidirectional field of view) with all the cameras. Images obtained from the respective cameras were temporarily stored in a storage device of a computer or the like.
The images taken by the respective cameras were stitched together to produce an image of the desired field of view.
However, in the prior art, when a sight in the outdoor environment is to be imaged with a plurality of cameras each of which is designed to automatically change the settings (shutter speed, focal length, diaphragm, or the like), the settings of each of these cameras will be automatically changed to different values because a portion of the sight that is to be imaged by each camera has a different brightness and focal length from those for the other cameras. Consequently, even if the images from the respective cameras are stitched together, the brightness and tint may become discontinuous at the seams of the images.
If the above-mentioned settings have fixed values, respectively, the resultant image may become blackish or whitish when the portions of the sight to be imaged by the respective cameras are remarkably different in brightness or the like from each other.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in light of the above-mentioned disadvantages and it is an object of the present invention to reduce any discontinuity between the images taken by a plurality of imaging apparatuses.